editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent. With reporting focused on general science, NASA, and the intersection between technology and society, Greenfieldboyce has been on the science desk's technology beat since she joined NPR in 2005. In that time Greenfieldboyce has reported on topics including the narwhals in Greenland, the ending of the space shuttle program, and the reasons why independent truckers don't want electronic tracking in their cabs. Much of Greenfieldboyce's reporting reflects an interest in discovering how applied science and technology connects with people and culture. She has worked on stories spanning issues such as pet cloning, gene therapy, ballistics, and federal regulation of new technology. Prior to NPR, Greenfieldboyce spent a decade working in print, mostly magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist . A graduate of Johns Hopkins, earning her Bachelor's of Arts degree in social sciences and a Master's of Arts degree in scienceNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Nell GreenfieldboyceWed, 25 Apr 2018 16:22:04 +0000Nell Greenfieldboycehttp://wkms.org
Nell Greenfieldboycehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyQdK56Qee0 Wednesday was the day astronomers said goodbye to the old Milky Way they had known and loved and hello to a new view of our home galaxy. A European Space Agency mission called Gaia just released a long-awaited treasure trove of data: precise measurements of 1.7 billion stars. It's unprecedented for scientists to know the exact brightness, distances, motions and colors of more than a billion stars. The information will yield the best three-dimensional map of our galaxy ever. "This is a very big deal. I've been working on trying to understand the Milky Way and the formation of the Milky Way for a large fraction of my scientific career, and the amount of information this is revealing in some sense is thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times larger than any amount of information we've had previously," said David Hogg, an astrophysicist at New York University and the Flatiron Institute. "We're really talking about an immense change to ourYou Are Here: Scientists Unveil Precise Map Of More Than A Billion Starshttp://wkms.org/post/you-are-here-scientists-unveil-precise-map-more-billion-stars
94076 as http://wkms.orgWed, 25 Apr 2018 14:39:48 +0000You Are Here: Scientists Unveil Precise Map Of More Than A Billion StarsNell Greenfieldboycehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4KjvPIbgMI If signs of life are found on a planet beyond our solar system sometime in the next decade, they'll most likely be on a planet discovered by a NASA satellite that's scheduled to launch on Monday. The mission is called TESS , short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and it will spend two years scanning almost the entire sky to search for alien worlds. Scientists already know of over 3,000 planets around distant stars, thanks in large part to a previous NASA mission called Kepler . It spent years staring at stars in a small patch of the sky to look for a tell-tale dimming that meant a planet had passed by and blocked some of the starlight. The Kepler mission revealed that planets of all sorts of sizes are extremely common. "There are far more planets in the Milky Way than there are stars," says MIT astronomer George Ricker , the principal investigator for TESS. But he says the challenge with the Kepler discoveries is that the planets'Get Ready For the Next Big Thing In NASA's Search For Earth's Twinhttp://wkms.org/post/get-ready-next-big-thing-nasas-search-earths-twin
93572 as http://wkms.orgSun, 15 Apr 2018 13:18:05 +0000Get Ready For the Next Big Thing In NASA's Search For Earth's TwinNell GreenfieldboyceGovernment health agencies have spent more than two decades shying away from gun violence research, but some say the new spending bill, signed by President Trump on Friday, will change that. That is because, in agency instructions that accompany the bill, there is a sentence noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the authority to conduct research on the causes of gun violence. "I think this is a huge victory for our country and our communities and our children. This is one step in many to help stop gun violence in this country," says Rep. Stephanie Murphy , a Democrat from the Orlando, Fla., area, where a mass shooting left 49 dead at a gay nightclub in 2016. But researchers who study gun violence are unimpressed. "There's no funding. There's no agreement to provide funding. There isn't even encouragement. No big questions get answered, and there's nothing here, yet, of significance for the research community," says Dr. Garen Wintemute , a well-known expert onSpending Bill Lets CDC Study Gun Violence; But Researchers Are Skeptical It Will Helphttp://wkms.org/post/spending-bill-allows-cdc-study-gun-violence-researchers-skeptical-it-will-help
92415 as http://wkms.orgFri, 23 Mar 2018 17:41:41 +0000Spending Bill Lets CDC Study Gun Violence; But Researchers Are Skeptical It Will HelpNell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit AILSA CHANG, HOST: The new government spending bill working its way through Congress contains some language about research on gun violence. For two decades, government health agencies have shied away from doing studies on guns. Some say that's about to change because of what's in this spending bill. But as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, others are more skeptical. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Every year, guns kill more than 35,000 Americans and cause about 80,000 injuries. But good luck finding anything on guns if you go to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's premier public health agency. Go up to the search box, type in guns, and the first thing that comes up is nail gun safety. Then you've got something about a comic, more nail gun injuries. There's almost nothing on firearms, and here's why. Back in 1996, Congress passed something called the Dickey Amendment. It said that none of the funds given toGovernment Spending Bill Could Change How Health Agencies Study Gunshttp://wkms.org/post/government-spending-bill-could-change-how-health-agencies-study-guns
92373 as http://wkms.orgThu, 22 Mar 2018 21:57:00 +0000Government Spending Bill Could Change How Health Agencies Study GunsNell GreenfieldboyceGenetic mutations are the driving force of evolution, and now scientists have managed to study the effect of mutations in exquisite detail by watching what happens as they pop up in single cells. Only about one percent of mutations were bad enough to kill off the cell, according to a report published Thursday in Science . Most of the time, these small changes in its DNA appeared to have no effect at all. Mutations have been studied for centuries, says Lydia Robert , a researcher at INRA, an agricultural research institute in Paris, France, who notes that they can have medical impacts ranging from antibiotic resistance to cancer. But research on mutations basically has focused on large-scale effects in populations. "You have a test tube with millions of bacteria, for instance, and you try to measure some property which is an average of all the cells in the population," says Robert. In contrast, she and her colleagues wanted to study mutations in single cells. So they turned to a soBiologists Trace Genetic Roots Of Evolution, One Cell At A Timehttp://wkms.org/post/biologists-trace-genetic-roots-evolution-one-cell-time
92028 as http://wkms.orgFri, 16 Mar 2018 00:41:34 +0000Biologists Trace Genetic Roots Of Evolution, One Cell At A TimeNell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: The world is getting brighter, which is not necessarily a good thing. Scientists say artificial light from cities and other human settlements across the world may have a negative impact on humans and animals. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that researchers are now able to measure exactly how much brighter the globe gets each year. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Light pollution can keep people from seeing the stars. It might affect wildlife, like migrating birds. And Christopher Kyba says it just keeps increasing. CHRISTOPHER KYBA: My mom, for example, grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan in a time before they had electrification. So she grew up with an amazing, starry sky. And now she lives within one lifetime under a very light-polluted sky. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Kyba studies nighttime light at the German Research Center for Geosciences. He and some colleagues knew that a satellite launched in 2011 had a new instrument, oneNight Light Increasing Around The Worldhttp://wkms.org/post/night-light-increasing-around-world
88730 as http://wkms.orgSun, 07 Jan 2018 13:06:00 +0000Night Light Increasing Around The WorldNell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit LAUREN FRAYER, HOST: This is Lauren's log, stardate December 31, 2017. Captain Lulu Garcia-Navarro is away, but we continue the mission to explore matters of space, the stars and the universe. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) FRAYER: As we near the end of 2017, let's take stock of the most momentous space stories of the year. There were some big ones. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce joins me now to help us look back. Hi there, Nell. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Hey. FRAYER: So probably the science story that grabbed the most attention, at least here in the U.S. this year, was the Great American Eclipse. Now, I'm assuming you didn't miss this. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Oh, absolutely. There's no way I was going to miss this. And the thing is, I had talked to a lot of eclipse chasers before, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. But when the moon went in front of the sun and the whole sky went dark and there was this other worldly sort of circleThe Year In Space Discoverieshttp://wkms.org/post/year-space-discoveries
88426 as http://wkms.orgSun, 31 Dec 2017 13:12:00 +0000The Year In Space DiscoveriesNell GreenfieldboyceScientists could soon resume controversial experiments on germs with the potential to cause pandemics, as government officials have decided to finally lift an unusual three-year moratorium on federal funding for the work. The research involves three viruses — influenza, SARS, and MERS — that could kill millions if they mutated in a way that let the germs spread quickly among people. The bird flu virus H7N9, for example, is known to have infected more than 1,500 people, and 40 percent of them died. But unlike common flu strains, this one does not spread easily among humans. Biologists say they may need to alter these viruses in the lab to understand what genetic changes matter in starting pandemics, so they can understand the risks and get ready. But some of their past efforts to tinker with viruses have made other scientists uneasy . On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services released a new framework for making decisions about funding research that has the potential toNIH Lifts Ban On Research That Could Make Deadly Viruses Even Worsehttp://wkms.org/post/nih-lifts-ban-research-could-make-deadly-viruses-even-worse
87945 as http://wkms.orgTue, 19 Dec 2017 17:04:41 +0000NIH Lifts Ban On Research That Could Make Deadly Viruses Even WorseNell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Skies over North America were once filled with passenger pigeons. In the 19th century, birdwatchers described clouds of pigeons so big they blocked the sun. About a hundred years ago, the species went extinct. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that scientists have been trying to learn more about how they got killed off by looking at the birds' DNA. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Passenger pigeons are still around. They're just dead, like Martha. She's perched on a branch in a glass box at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Compared to a modern city pigeon, Martha looks thin and delicate. HELEN JAMES: She's somber-looking. She's not very brightly colored. She has a long, tapering tail - more like a mourning dove. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Helen James is the curator for birds here. She says Martha lived at the Cincinnati Zoo and was believed to be the last remaining member of her species until September 1, 1914, when sheInsights Into The Extinction Of The Passenger Pigeonhttp://wkms.org/post/insights-extinction-passenger-pigeon
87816 as http://wkms.orgSat, 16 Dec 2017 12:48:00 +0000Insights Into The Extinction Of The Passenger PigeonNell GreenfieldboycePresident Trump has formally told NASA to send U.S. astronauts back to the moon. "The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery," he said. Standing at the president's side as he signed "Space Policy Directive 1" on Monday was Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt , one of the last two humans to ever walk on the moon, in a mission that took place 45 years ago this week. Since that time, no human has ventured out beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA doesn't even have its own space vehicle, having retired the space shuttles in 2011. Americans currently ride up to the International Space Station in Russian capsules, though private space taxis are expected to start ferrying them up as soon as next year. For now, the ultimate goal for human exploration in space remains Mars. "This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and, perhaps someday, to many worldsPresident Trump Is Sending NASA Back To The Moonhttp://wkms.org/post/president-trump-sending-nasa-back-moon
87572 as http://wkms.orgMon, 11 Dec 2017 22:31:58 +0000President Trump Is Sending NASA Back To The MoonNell GreenfieldboyceAt least one young woman suffered eye damage as a result of unsafe viewing of the recent total solar eclipse, according to a report published Thursday, but it doesn't appear that many such injuries occurred. Doctors in New York say a woman in her 20s came in three days after looking at the Aug. 21 eclipse without protective glasses. She had peeked several times, for about six seconds, when the sun was only partially covered by the moon. Four hours later, she started experiencing blurred and distorted vision and saw a central black spot in her left eye. The doctors studied her eyes with several different imaging technologies, described in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, and were able to observe the damage at the cellular level. "We were very surprised at how precisely concordant the imaged damage was with the crescent shape of the eclipse itself," noted Dr. Avnish Deobhakta , a retina surgeon at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai in New York, in an email to NPR. He says thisHere's What It Looks Like When You Fry Your Eye In An Eclipsehttp://wkms.org/post/heres-what-it-looks-when-you-fry-your-eye-eclipse
87374 as http://wkms.orgThu, 07 Dec 2017 17:46:39 +0000Here's What It Looks Like When You Fry Your Eye In An EclipseNell GreenfieldboyceAstronomers have spotted some kind of outer space rock that's the first visitor from outside of our solar system that they've ever observed. The discovery has set off a mad scramble to point telescopes at this fast-moving object to try to learn as much as possible before it zips out of sight. "Now we finally have a sample of something from another solar system, and I think that's really neat, " says Karen Meech , an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, "and so you'd love to see if it looks like stuff in our solar system." It's long been assumed that an interstellar object like this one should be out there, because giant planets in forming solar systems are thought to toss out bits of space crud that haven't yet glommed into anything. But this is the first time scientists have actually found one. The mysterious object is small — less than a quarter mile in diameter — and seems to have come from the general direction of the constellation Lyra, moving throughScientists Spot First Alien Space Rock In Our Solar Systemhttp://wkms.org/post/scientists-spot-first-alien-space-rock-our-solar-system
85486 as http://wkms.orgThu, 26 Oct 2017 22:23:19 +0000Scientists Spot First Alien Space Rock In Our Solar SystemNell GreenfieldboyceHaving police officers wear little cameras seems to have no discernible impact on citizen complaints or officers' use of force, at least in the nation's capital. That's the conclusion of a study performed as Washington, D.C., rolled out its huge camera program. The city has one of the largest forces in the country, with some 2,600 officers now wearing cameras on their collars or shirts. "We found essentially that we could not detect any statistically significant effect of the body-worn cameras," says Anita Ravishankar , a researcher with the Metropolitan Police Department and a group in the city government called the Lab @ DC . "I think we're surprised by the result. I think a lot of people were suggesting that the body-worn cameras would change behavior," says Chief of Police Peter Newsham . "There was no indication that the cameras changed behavior at all." Perhaps, he says, that is because his officers "were doing the right thing in the first place." In the wake of high-profileBody Cam Study Shows No Effect On Police Use Of Force Or Citizen Complaintshttp://wkms.org/post/body-cam-study-shows-no-effect-police-use-force-or-citizen-complaints
85239 as http://wkms.orgFri, 20 Oct 2017 15:23:11 +0000Body Cam Study Shows No Effect On Police Use Of Force Or Citizen ComplaintsNell Greenfieldboycehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7LcmWiclOs For the first time, scientists have caught two neutron stars in the act of colliding, revealing that these strange smashups are the source of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. The discovery, announced Monday at a news conference and in scientific reports written by some 3,500 researchers, solves a long-standing mystery about the origin of these heavy elements — which are found in everything from wedding rings to cellphones to nuclear weapons. It's also a dramatic demonstration of how astrophysics is being transformed by humanity's newfound ability to detect gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time that are created when massive objects spin around each other and finally collide. "It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful it makes me want to cry. It's the fulfillment of dozens, hundreds, thousands of people's efforts, but it's also the fulfillment of an idea suddenly becoming real," says Peter Saulson of Syracuse University,Astronomers Strike Gravitational Gold In Colliding Neutron Starshttp://wkms.org/post/astronomers-strike-gravitational-gold-colliding-neutron-stars
85036 as http://wkms.orgMon, 16 Oct 2017 14:42:11 +0000Astronomers Strike Gravitational Gold In Colliding Neutron StarsNell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Today, three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a new way to image biological molecules. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has more on the winners. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Richard Henderson works at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. Earlier today, he was at a scientific conference happily listening to talks about new research using cryo-electron microscopy. That's a tool he pioneered. Then his phone rang. The call was from Sweden. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) RICHARD HENDERSON: And I rarely get phone calls from Sweden. But I'm surrounded by the audience, so I rejected the phone call. (LAUGHTER) HENDERSON: And then it rang again. I thought, well, I'd better. So I then went outside. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He told reporters that's when he learned he'd won the Nobel Prize. He shares it with Jacques Dubochet in Switzerland and Joachim Frank at Columbia University in New York. At aNobel Prize In Chemistry Awarded To Researchers Who Improved 'Imaging Of Biomolecules'http://wkms.org/post/nobel-prize-chemistry-awarded-researchers-who-improved-imaging-biomolecules
84528 as http://wkms.orgWed, 04 Oct 2017 20:47:00 +0000Nobel Prize In Chemistry Awarded To Researchers Who Improved 'Imaging Of Biomolecules'Nell GreenfieldboyceCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: This is Lulu's log, stardate October 1, 2017, where we consider matters of space, the stars and the universe. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) GARCIA-NAVARRO: The International Astronautical Congress gathered in Australia this week, and there were sessions on nanosatellites and a talk called 50 Ways to Leave Your Earth. Billionaire inventor Elon Musk was there to tout one way to get off our home planet, a rocket his company SpaceX is developing. Destination, Mars. And when might that first happen? Musk's PowerPoint said by 2022, and Musk said, quote, "that's not a typo." Nell Greenfieldboyce of NPR's Science Desk joins us now to talk about how realistic this is. Hey, Nell. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Hey. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Did we get a better sense of what this kind of travel might look like? GREENFIELDBOYCE: Yeah. So compared to a plan to go to Mars that he unveiled last year, this plan seems still pretty sci-fi, but not quite soElon Musk Lays Out His Mars Colony Planshttp://wkms.org/post/elon-musk-lays-out-his-mars-colony-plans
84329 as http://wkms.orgSun, 01 Oct 2017 12:09:00 +0000Elon Musk Lays Out His Mars Colony PlansNell Greenfieldboycehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATz09bOeNP0 The day of the long-awaited coast-to-coast solar eclipse has arrived — and if history is any guide, it's likely that somebody's eyes are going to get hurt. "The ones we're really concerned about are the people who have never seen an eclipse before — or just decided that, you know, 'Today is a nice day to go take a look at a solar eclipse' — and, 'Oh, I probably don't need to do very much to get ready to do that.' Then I get worried," says Ralph Chou , an optometrist and vision scientist at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He has seen 18 total solar eclipses. You really can get blurred vision or blind spots after watching partial eclipses without protection, says Chou, even if there is just a tiny little crescent of sun left in the sky. "I've seen a couple of patients over the years where, you know, you've got very distinct crescent-shaped scars from looking at a solar eclipse," says Chou. It is never safe to look directly at a partialBe Smart: A Partial Eclipse Can Fry Your Naked Eyeshttp://wkms.org/post/be-smart-partial-eclipse-can-fry-your-naked-eyes
82339 as http://wkms.orgFri, 18 Aug 2017 23:10:50 +0000Be Smart: A Partial Eclipse Can Fry Your Naked EyesNell GreenfieldboyceAnyone who gets to see the total solar eclipse on August 21 will be lucky — and humanity is lucky to live on a planet that even has this kind of celestial event. Mercury and Venus, after all, don't even have moons. Mars has a couple, but they're too small to completely blot out the sun. Gas giants like Jupiter do have big moons, but they don't have solid surfaces where you could stand and enjoy an eclipse. And, even with solid land and a moon, Earth only gets its gorgeous total solar eclipses because of a cosmic coincidence. "They appear to be the same size because of their distance away from us," explains Amber Porter , an astronomer at Clemson University, which is in the path of the upcoming eclipse. The diameter of Earth's moon is about 400 times smaller than the diameter of the sun, but "even though the moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun, it's about 400 times closer to us here on Earth, which is how that perfect kind of magic happens." Because of this quirk, the tiny moonWhy Future Earthlings Won't See Total Solar Eclipseshttp://wkms.org/post/why-future-earthlings-wont-see-total-solar-eclipses
82099 as http://wkms.orgMon, 14 Aug 2017 15:07:45 +0000Why Future Earthlings Won't See Total Solar EclipsesNell Greenfieldboycehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTxz_d2q7Js You might think that, after thousands of years of observing total solar eclipses, science-minded folks would have exhausted what can be learned from this awesome natural spectacle. You would be wrong. "I get asked all the time, why are we still doing eclipses for scientific purposes," says Jay Pasachoff , an astronomer at Williams College in Massachusetts who chairs the International Astronomical Union's working group on solar eclipses. "There [are] still whole parts of the sun that can't be seen from satellites and that we just see better at eclipses." That's why, later this month, many astronomers and citizen-scientist volunteers will gaze up toward the sun and join a long line of eclipse scholars that includes Plutarch, the Babylonians, ancient imperial astronomers in China, and even Thomas Edison. One focus of attention will be the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona , which is revealed when the moon slips in front of the sun andScientists Prepare For 'The Most Beautiful Thing You Can See In The Sky'http://wkms.org/post/scientists-prepare-most-beautiful-thing-you-can-see-sky
81805 as http://wkms.orgMon, 07 Aug 2017 21:00:57 +0000Scientists Prepare For 'The Most Beautiful Thing You Can See In The Sky'Nell GreenfieldboyceScientists have found a shockingly hot, massive, Jupiter-like planet that has a tail like a comet. "It is so hot that it is hotter than most stars that we know of out there," says Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, whose team describes the scorching world called KELT-9b in the journal Nature . The planet, which is around three times more massive than Jupiter, orbits a blue star about 650 light-years away from Earth. This star is nearly twice as hot as our own sun, and this planet whips around it once every one and a half Earth days. One side of the planet is locked in perpetual night. The other side always faces the searing heat of its host star and has a surface temperature of around 7,820 degrees Fahrenheit. "It's so hot that we think that there's no molecules that can live on the day side of this planet," Gaudi says. "Its day side would be very bright orange. Its night side would be very dark red. And it would have a cloud of evaporating hydrogen and helium,Scientists Discover A Scorched Planet With A Comet-Like Tailhttp://wkms.org/post/scientists-discover-scorched-planet-comet-tail
79102 as http://wkms.orgMon, 05 Jun 2017 16:43:54 +0000Scientists Discover A Scorched Planet With A Comet-Like Tail